Hoping to Clear the Air in Casinos, Workers Seek to Ban Tobacco Smoke - KFF Health News
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Casinos in several states are fighting efforts to ban smoking, and trying to roll back existing anti-smoking laws. One planned facility even moved outside a city’s limits because of voter-approved smoking restrictions.

The instant Tammy Brady felt the lump in her breast in February 2022, she knew it was cancer. With no known genetic predisposition for breast cancer, she suspects 38 years of working in smoky Atlantic City casinos played a role.

“I was just trying to make a living,” said Brady, 56, a dealer and supervisor at Borgata in that New Jersey resort city. “You don’t think, you know, that you’re going to get sick at your job.”

Some casinos continue to allow indoor smoking even as the share of Americans who smoke fell from about 21% in 2005 to 12% in 2021 and smoking is banned in at least some public spaces in 35 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Still, 13 of the 22 states and territories that allow casino gambling permit smoking in at least part of their facilities.

Brady is among the casino employees, anti-smoking advocates, and public health experts who argue it is long past time to snuff out casino exemptions from smoking bans, given the dangers of secondhand smoke. But they’ve faced stiff pushback from some gambling industry leaders, including in Missouri, Louisiana, Kentucky, and New Jersey, who argue that smoking bans drive gamblers away — especially in places where patrons can go instead to a casino in a nearby jurisdiction that allows them to light up.

  • Melkath@kbin.social
    316·
    10 months ago

    Says the propaganda guzzler.

    Which is more stupid?

    1. A casino owner who smokes, drinks, and gambles, so they create a successful business offering a place where other grown ass adults can smoke, drink and gamble.

    2. A fucking Karen who gets breast cancer, so she demands that noone on Earth can enjoy a smoke under a roof. Probably really just gunning for a lawsuit, a horse shit lawsuit, against her employer of 36 years.

    • Sendbeer@lemm.eeEnglish
      51·
      10 months ago

      I mean you make a pretty decent argument on your first post.

      There may be a link to her working in the casino for 38 years and getting breast cancer… but you’re right, it’s hardly a proven fact and could have been caused by a thousand other things. And maybe a casino should be able to choose whether they are smoke free or not. You can make a pretty good argument for that stance.

      But man , every one of your responses after that has just been mouth diarrhea.

      The caffeine one was just fucking stupid.

      Take some time and back up your statements rather than just troll out. Be better.